US Published Patent Application No. 2011/0246376 to Devakondra et al points out that network data processing systems are used for a variety of different purposes and come in a number of different forms. Several types of network data processing systems are commonly used by companies and other organizations and may include, for example, local area networks, wide area networks, virtual private networks, and other suitable types of networks. In addition to such networks that may be maintained by the network operator itself, cloud services are available and the users of this type of network data processing systems neither own nor manage the physical infrastructure.
According to US Published Patent Application Number 2011/0270968 to Salsburg at al, the term “cloud computing” generally refers to a model that makes computing resources available over a network as services. Computing services provided in a cloud computing environment can be broadly divided into three categories: (a) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”) generally seen as comprising the delivery of computer hardware (e.g., servers, data storage systems, routers, etc.) as a service, (b) Platform-as-a-Service (“PaaS”) generally seen as comprising the delivery of a computing platform or solution stack as a service, and (c) Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) generally seen as comprising hosting complete applications and delivering the applications as a service.
A “cloud” is a set of computing resources, such as computer hardware, data storage, networks, applications, services, and Interfaces, that allow computing to be delivered as a service. A cloud can be a private cloud, a public cloud, or a hybrid cloud that combines both public and private clouds. A private cloud typically includes a data center or proprietary network that provides computing services to a group of people, an organization, a business, or another entity. A private cloud may be located within an organization's private network or within a private space dedicated to an organization within a cloud vendor data center. A public cloud is a cloud in which computing services are made available to the public, typically for a fee. For example, a cloud service provider may make computing resources available to an organization via the Internet. A public cloud may be configured as a web service that allows users to manage computing resources hosted by the public cloud via a web interface.
In a public cloud environment, computing resources are provided to a user on demand and In various sizes and configurations. For example, a user may utilize a public cloud for storing a small amount of data or for hosting processor intensive software applications. A user can also request additional resources on demand and de-allocate resources when they are no longer required. This flexibility and elasticity has made cloud computing attractive to many businesses and IT professionals. In addition to this flexibility and elasticity, cloud computing can enable an organization to reduce capital expenses normally allocated to IT infrastructure. However, there are many factors to consider before an organization moves a computing workload to a public cloud. For example, according to US Published Patent Application Number 2011/0270968 to Salsburg et al, there is a need to validate business applications (workloads) in terms of technical portability and business requirements/compliance so that the workloads can be deployed into a cloud without considerable customization. Conventionally, according to US Published Patent Application Number 2011/0270968 to Salsburg at al, this validation is accomplished using a manual, time consuming process for workload identification, workload classification, and cloud provider assessment to find the ‘best-fit’ for business workload hosting.
Organizations that employ more traditional types of network data processing systems may contemplate whether to change over from their more traditional network environment to a cloud network environment. In view of the fact that the particular cloud services offered by each cloud service provider or vendor will have different features, benefits, service operating requirements, and costs, it would be advantageous for a network operator to have access to tools that can help guide a decision to migrate computing tasks to a cloud. Moreover, it would be advantageous if such tools for a guiding a network operator could equip the network operator to have an accurate picture of the computing resources in its own network that will or can be replaced by the cloud computing resources. Furthermore, network operators can make better informed decisions about purchasing cloud services if they can get pricing information about potential cloud service providers and, especially, pricing information about the scope of computing resources that tasks could be taken over in a cloud service arrangement.